A brief history
by Garret Marsh
Summary: A summary of my life in gaming.


The first game I ever played was Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis at the age of 5. I played a few old lesser known Sega games, but since the Sega resided at my Mamaw's (Grandma) I only got to play it for a few days ever 2 or 3 weeks. It wasn't until I was 6 that my dad bought me and my brothers the special jungle green Nintendo 64 package that came with Donkey Kong 64. Of course, after that our collection grew to involve classics like Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie, and even some that were less praised like Mega Man 64 and Bomberman 64. While I missed some of the 64's more prominent gems until later in life like Star Fox 64 and Pokémon Stadium, one classic I did successfully play at it's peak was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

I was way too young to fully understand the concepts of franchises and series, so I wasn't completely aware that many of the games I was playing were already well established and had multiple games to there name, or even that Nintendo had already released not just one but two systems before the 64, and my ignorance of Zelda was no different. Regardless, I remember Ocarina of Time fondly. I remember it being fun and enjoyable, but I also remember it being frightening and difficult. At the time, the only internet available was through hideous dial-up connection, so no one was going to attempt looking up a walkthrough to help win a game. Because of that, Ocarina of time unfortunately sat only half finished for the better part of 10 years.

Right around the time I started middle school, I fell away from playing video games. Due to my horrible memory, I'll never fully remember just why I stopped playing games. While I had friends and was always part of sports growing up, I never really had an active social life outside of school, so to this day I still have no recollection of just what filled my time back then. I even remember my brother coming home with a Playstation 2 and always carrying around a Gameboy Advanced, and I still didn't play consoles like I used to. However, around the age of 15 I ended up at a garage sale held by a family friend with a little money in my pocket and picked myself up an only slightly used Nintendo Gamecube for only $20. While unfortunately at this time the Gamecube was on it's way out and was slowly being replaced by the Wii, I still found a huge amount of enjoyment from the system and still do.

I had only been playing Pokémon at the time, so the Gamecube helped to reintroduce me to a lot of the old series I used to love. Super Mario Sunshine got my back into Mario, and Sonic Adventure DX got me back into Sonic. The Gamecube even sent into brand new series like Paper Mario and Animal Crossing. However, one series that was left out was still Zelda. Outside of Ocarina of Time, my only other experiences with Link involved a brief viewing of Majora's Mask at a friend's house, and Super Smash Bros. I of course still new Zelda existed and was relevant because I remembered seeing commercials for Twilight Princess, but I never had the opportunity to really dive back into the series like the others. That is, until one faithful Christmas.

For the few years she was involved in our lives, our Aunt Suzie used to bring us more gifts on Christmas Day than Santa brought to any single country. I had already had all of my gifts, but for each of my brother's she had given something special: A brand new Nintendo DS. Only about a month before my own DS had completely disappeared along with my copy of Pokémon Pearl and to this day I've never found it. My younger brother received the red Nintendo DS packaged with Super Mario DS, which he thoroughly enjoyed until he quickly lost the game only a few months later. My youngest brother, however, received the special edition gold Triforce DS which came with The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. While my brother enjoyed the DS and some of the other games he'd gotten, he didn't see the magic in Phantom Hourglass. I however did.

Like Super Mario Sunshine and Sonic Adventure had before it, Phantom Hourglass launched me back into the Zelda universe full force. Although I had no idea it was a sequel until a little later, that didn't diminish how much the game truely means to me. Since then, I've become an avid gamer across all spectrums. While I generally enjoy games from the Gamecube era and back more, I've come to love all games of all systems and genres. Currently, I'me playing through Pokémon X, Phantom Hourglass, A Link to the Past, Twilight Princess, Majora's Mask, Mega Man 64, Mario Galaxy, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and me and my girlfriend are playing through Kirby's Epic Yarn together.

I'm not a perfect gamer. I still don't enjoy every game, there are too many games that I still want to buy or play but haven't, and I've gotten into a terrible habit of buying games and not finishing them. But I'll always appreciate Nintendo and I'll always be looking forward to the next Zelda game on it's way out. Zelda taught me what it was like to throw myself into the world of the game and be a part of the lore within, and I'll always turn to it whenever life wants me to try and grow up too fast.


End file.
